Vehicle cleaner



May 4 1926-. l 1,583,522

J. BRANDSTETTER VEHICLE CLEANER Filed May 12, 1924 Patented May 4, 1926.

JOSEF BRANDSTETTER,

PATENT OFI-Ica or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

VEHICLE CLEANER.

Application led May 12,

To all whom, it may concern.:

Be it known that I, JOSEF BRANDSTETTER, citizen of the lUnited States, residing at Chicago, in the countyv of Cook and State of Illinois, have inventedcertain new and usefullmprovements in a Vehicle Cleaner;l and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of. the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to air-sucking or airblowing appliances adapted to be detachably secured to vehicles and arranged so as to' be actuated from a driving wheel. of the vehicle. Generally speaking, the objects of my present invention include those of provld- Ving an exceedingly 4simple and easily attached appliance for this purpose and one having certain parts so arranged as to compensate for irregularities in the runnmg board from 'which the appliance 1s supported, and to insure a rigid supporting of the body member of the appliance while also affording a sutlicient yielding at the driving connection to compensate for irregularities in the tire of the driving wheel. Furthermore, my invention aims to provide an appliance of this kind which can be operated with equal facility as a vacuum cleaner and as an air blower or spray device. Still other and also more detailed objects will appear` from the following. specification and from the accompanying drawings, in Which-' Fig. 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of an automobile, showing an embodiment of my invention attached to the same in operative position.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective viewv of the same appliance, with the portion of a suction hose attached to the same.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged rear view of the f appliance as it appears looking away from the vehicle, with the tire of the adjacent wheel shown in dotted lines but with other vehicle portions omitted. G

Fig. 4 is an enlarged zigzag vertical section taken along the correspondingly numbered line of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the same ap-Av pliance, showing this attached to a running board after the manner of Fig. 1, with the rear fender of the lvehicle cutaway.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged transverse section 1924. serial No. 712,517.

through the drive pulley of the appliance, 58 taken along the correspondingly numbered line ofFig.2.

Fig. 7 is a front elevation of the same appliance, showing this as it appears when connected to an air blowing hose, the adja- 60 lcent hose .portion and the coupling for connecting the hose to the fan casing being shown in section.

i In the embodiment of the drawings, the appliance of my invention includes as a @5 rigid body member a fan casing 1 att-ached to a clamp formed to alford a fork straddling the outer edge of the running board 2 of the automobile. The clamp portion of this body member desirably has a relatively 7e I long vertical riser portion 3 adapted to bear fiatwise against the outeredge of the running board and connecting an upper jaw d with a lower jaw 5', these jaws being spaced from each other by a distance greater than the usual thickness of such ruiming boards. Threaded through the upper jaw 4c is a thumb screw 6 whiclf desirably has a presser foot 7 swiveled to its tip and adapted to bear against the upper face of the running board. Threaded upwardly through ythe lower web 5 are a plurality of adjusting. screws 8 adapted to engage the lower face of the running board: These adjusting screws preferably have their axes disposed e5 at the corners of an imaginary triangle, after the manner indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 5, with the clamping screw 6 and its presser foot opposite the center of'this triangle.

The rigid body member also includes a bearing 9 which is here shown as integral with the rear face of the fan casing 1 and as forming a fork so as to afford two bearings for a shaft 10 which extends through 9e the fan casing and carries the fan 11.

To rotate the fan, I provide a pulley 13 which is fastened to the shaft 10 and which is disposed :for engaging the periphery of the tire 14.- of the rear driving wheel of the automobile when the clamp is secured to the running board adjacent to the rear fender 15. To insure a good frictional driving connection between the tire' 14 and the pulley 13 in spite of irregularities in the latter, I de- 10a sirably provide the pulley with a radially compressible core 16 interposed between the shaft 10 and an outer rim portion of the pulley, as for example by lemploying a spongy rubber or otherwise porous grade of rubber for this core 16.

When my appliance is'to be used as aI vacuum cleaner, l attach a suction hose 17 to the axial port 18 of the fan casing, and provide the free end of the hose with a suction nozzle of any usual type, such as the nozzle 19 of Fig. l. to be used in this manner, the rear driving wheel is disposed so as to be out of engageclutch in position for rotating the drivingj wheels in the proper direction, the rotation of the rear drivin wheel will rotate the tan shaft at a relatively much higher speed, and by suitably proportioning the size of the drive pulley 13 to the average size of the rear wheels of automobile, l can readily secure such a speed of :tan rot-ation as .will

produce a strong suction through the When my appliance is to be used for airblowing purposes (which is often desirable both for blowing foreign matter out of crevices, atomizing and spraying oil against the engine, ete), l change the hose connection from the axial ort 18 to the port l2 which formed the disc arge outlet of the tan casing when the appliance was employed as aA vacuum cleaner, so as to connect the hose after the manner shown. ith this in mind,

. 4d i2 cylindricaland provide it with a pair of oppositely directed projecting pins 20 adapted to interlock with bayonet catches on a reducing iii ple 21 to which the inlet end of a blower lxose 212 is attached, as shown in Fig. 7.'

i ln initially adjustin my appliance to any articular car, the a 'usting screws 8 are backed down considera. ly so as to clear the bottom of the running board, thereby permitting the clamp of the appliance to be slid longitudinally along the running board with the presser foot 7 slidably bearing on the top of the running board until the pulley 13 is in good frictional en agement with the wheel tire 14, this being one'with the riser 3 bearing latwise against the outer edge of the running board. When Athis position, has

been reached, the screws 8 are tightened, thereby permitting the several s crews 8 to compensate for irregular formations on the Wrhen the appliance is sirable details of construction and arrangenient, lt do not wish to be limited as to these, since manyv changes might obviously be made without departing either from the spirit of my invention or from the appended claims.

l claim as my invention l. A vehicle cleaner including a body having spaced upper and lower jaws formed to engage on opposite sides of the running board of a vehicle, means to clamp the jaws to the running board, an operating mechanism having a casing, said body having an integral part extending outwardly therefrom and at an angle, and rigidly connected to Asaid member so as to support the latter at points along lthe side and in spaced relation to the rear end of the running board, said body having an elongated wall in the space between the jaws to engagethe outer edge of.

the running board so as to engage against the outer side edge of the latter, a forked bearing carried by the inner side of said casing of said mechanism and extending in the space between said rear end of the running board and the adjacent rear wheel of the vehicle, and a driving member for actuating the operating mechanism journaled in said bearing and being engageable with said rear wheel of the vehicle.

2. A vehicle cleaner including a body having spaced upper and lower jaws formed to engage on opposite sides of the running board of a vehicle, means to clamp the jaws to the running board, an operating mechanism having a casing, said body having an integral part extending outwardly therefrom and at an angle, and rigidly connected to said member so as to support the latter at points along the side and in spaced relation to the rear end of the running board, a shaft connected to the operating member and extending in the Space between said rear end of the running board and the adjacent rear wheel of the vehicle, and a member on the shaftfengageable with said rear wheel of the vehicle to be actuated thereby.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, May 9th, 1924.

JOSEF BRANDSTETTER.

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